


i’m just waiting on fate to come wrap around me

by smokeofthetrain



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, Fluff, M/M, harry's upset, louis helps him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-28
Updated: 2014-06-28
Packaged: 2018-02-06 15:02:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1862202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smokeofthetrain/pseuds/smokeofthetrain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry loses his cat, but Harry finds Louis</p>
            </blockquote>





	i’m just waiting on fate to come wrap around me

 

“Sebastian?” Harry yells at the top of his lungs, “SEBASTIAN!”

He feels like a bit of an idiot, honestly and he’s attracting quite a few strange looks. It’s cold out, but he’s just dressed in jeans and a light t-shirt, wandering through the park and banging a spoon against a tin of cat food.

It’s just he’d woken up that morning and realised his ginger tabby wasn’t sitting at the end of his bed as usual.  Sebastian was still nowhere to be seen after a quick inspection of his flat, and to his horror Harry discovered that he’d accidently left the bathroom window open all night. He dressed hurriedly, throwing on the first things he found on the floor. Before he ran out of the flat, Harry grabbed a tin of Sebastian’s favourite cat food, chicken and liver. Sebastian normally came running whenever he heard Harry tapping against the tin of food, so Harry hoped it would lure him out.

Which is how he’s ended up here in the park nearest his apartment building, shivering and miserable, and half hoarse from shouting. It’s been almost an hour and Harry hasn’t seen a single sign of Seb. He’s rang the local animal shelter more times than he can count. The last time he’d called the woman on the other end of the line had sounded quite cross, telling him _no, no one has brought in a ginger cat,_ and _Mr. Styles, please, we have your number, we’ll call you if they do_.

Honestly, Harry doesn’t even know if Sebastian’s even in the park. He could be anywhere in this city. He could have gone into someone else’s home and they’ve decided to keep him, or he could have run out into traffic and... and...

Harry quick to cut off his thoughts, instead taking a deep breath and belting out another distressed “SEBAAASTIAAAAN,” as loud as he can, giving the can a series of hard taps.

There’s a moment of silence. Then “I think you’ve burst my eardrums,” comes a voice from behind, and Harry whirls around, startled. Behind him is a young man with light brown hair poking out from under a beanie, and bright eyes. He’s dressed casually, wearing skinny jeans and an oversized woolly jumper, and a backpack slung around his shoulders. The jumper looks warm, and Harry feels a brief flash of envy.

“I’m sorry,” Harry apologises immediately. “I was trying to call my cat.”

“Oh,” the boy’s face scrunches up in concern, “is he lost?”

“Yeah, he got out of my flat sometime last night, and I can’t find him anywhere.” Annoyingly, Harry feels his eyes start to prick with tears, the frustration of the morning sinking in. He does his best to hold them back, hoping the other boy hasn’t realised how close he is to crying.

Unfortunately, from the look of pity in his eyes, the boy has in fact noticed. “Okay, well I’ll help you look. I’m Louis by the way.”

“Harry. And please, I couldn’t ask you to do that-”

“Well you didn’t ask,” Louis cuts him off. “I’m telling you I’m helping, that’s different.”

Harry smiles despite himself, but his manners are far too ingrained into him to let Louis help that easily. “But you look busy,” he says, gesturing vaguely at Louis.

“Nah,” Louis dismisses. “I was on my way to a lecture, but the lecturer puts all the notes up online anyway so I don’t actually have to be there. It’s fine, I can catch up later. Now,” he says, sounding determined, “what does this cat look like?”

“Um, well he’s ginger. And he’s got really big green eyes.”

“Takes after his owner then,” Louis says, with a tiny smile and an eyebrow raise, and Harry returns to the search in a much better mood.

*

An hour later, and Sebastian is still nowhere to be seen, and even the fact that all the shouting has made Louis’ voice has taken on an adorable raspy quality isn’t enough to raise Harry’s spirits. He’s cold and he’s miserable and he hasn’t eaten all day.

Louis seems to be a mind reader, because he turns to Harry and says “How about we go to the cafe down the road? Get some tea and something to eat and then we’ll can head back out to search with fresh eyes?”

“I’d love to, but I left my wallet back at my flat.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll pay.”

“What? No, I-”

“Harry, I swear to god, just let me buy you some food and a hot drink. Your lips are turning blue.”

Harry may not have known Louis long, but he can recognise a stubborn streak when he sees one, and he already knows he’s lost this battle. With a little bow of his head, he murmurs, “Getting something to eat would be lovely. Thanks Louis.” Louis smiles so brightly in return that Harry feels like he’s doing him a favour, instead of the other way around.

When they walk into the cafe, Harry swears he’s never been so grateful for warmth in all his life. They both get BLTs, and Louis gets himself a cup of tea, tutting teasingly when Harry asks for a cappuccino. They take a seat down near the back of the cafe to avoid the cold air that gusts in whenever someone opens the door.

Harry tries to enjoy his sandwich, but his mind keeps drifting back to Sebastian. Seb is a house cat through and through. The only time he ever leaves the house is when he’s with Harry, using one of those cat leashes Harry taught him to walk on. But now Seb’s out there all alone in a city full of danger.

Harry’s startled from his thoughts by a hand being placed over his on the table. He looks up to meet Louis’ eyes. “It’ll be alright. We’ll find him,” he says with conviction.

“But what if we don’t?” Harry’s aware he sounds like a miserable twat, but he can’t help it. “It might sound stupid, but Seb is my best friend. I got him when he was just a little kitten, back when I first moved to London and I didn’t know anyone here. He was all I had, and I was all he had.” Oh god, Harry’s voice has gone horribly high-pitched, and there’s a tear spilling out of his eye that he hastily dashes away. Louis must think he’s pathetic, a grown man crying over his cat.

When he glances back at Louis’ face, however, all he sees is sympathy. Louis gives his hand a quick squeeze and says, “Why’d you move to London then? Was it for college?” It’s an obvious subject change, but Harry’s grateful for it. If he dwells on Sebastian any longer he’ll end up bawling uncontrollably in public.

“Um, I’m a singer actually. I come from a little village in Cheshire. Holmes Chapel, you probably haven’t heard of it. But yeah, there’s not much prospect of being picked up by a record label there,” Harry tells him with a wry smile, “So I thought I’d come down here and try my luck.”

“That must’ve taken some guts. And you didn’t know anyone?”

“No one. But it was okay, really. I met a guy, Nick, who owns a bar. I went in asking if I could play a few gigs there. We ended up becoming pretty good friends, and I've met a lot of other people through him.”

Louis frowns. “Just, um, friends or...?” He leaves the question hanging.

Harry laughs a little. “Yeah, just friends. Me and Nick were never like that. Although we are both gay.” The way Louis’ face brightens at that doesn’t go unnoticed by Harry.

“What about you? What are you in college for?” Harry asks.

“Drama and English. I want to be an actor, but you know how it is. So does everyone. I’ll probably end up becoming a teacher.” He screws up his face a little.

“I hope the acting does work out for you, but if it counts for anything I think you’d be a good teacher,” Harry tells him. “I know I've only known you for a couple of hours, but you’re nice and you’re helpful. I mean, you’ve definitely gone the extra mile to help me. Anyone would be lucky to have a teacher like that.”

Louis’ started blushing, just a little, and it’s adorable. “Thank you, Harry,” he says quietly. He takes a sip of his tea, but even as he does Harry can see his lips twitching into a smile.

They finish their sandwiches, and Harry starts getting restless, his mind occupied once again by thought of Sebastian. Before he can settle back into wallowing too much, Louis stands up.

“Right then, Harold,” he announces, clapping his hands together. “Let’s go find you some pussy.” There’s an older lady walking by who gives Louis a very affronted stare, and both boys end up running out of the cafe in fits of giggles.

*

They start back searching, and Harry feels a million times better, but it’s hardly grown any warmer as the day’s gone on, and Harry has to rub his hands up and down his arms to fight the chill. Suddenly, there’s a tap on his shoulder, and Louis is standing there holding out his jumper. “Here.”

“Louis, you’ve done enough. You can’t give me your jumper too.”

Louis rolls his eyes. “Just take it, Haz. I’m pretty warm anyway from all the walking around we’ve been doing.” Harry still makes no move to take the jumper, so Louis continues, “Look, if I get too cold you can swap it back. How about that?”

Harry’s tempted, but he’s also slightly distrustful. “You promise you’ll tell me the second you start feeling cold?”

“I promise.” Louis cocks an eyebrow. “Are you going to make me do a pinkie swear or something?”

Harry stares at Louis for a moment with narrowed eyes, then gives in and takes the jumper and puts it on. It’s a little snug on him, but it’s still warm from Louis’ body, and it smells like him, the faint remains of cigarette smoke and shampoo. Harry only just restrains himself from sniffing it in front of Louis.

They wander around the park for a bit, and Louis entertains them by taking the can from Harry, and banging it to the tune of What’s New Pussycat?. He’s attempting to sing along too, but he only really knows the chorus, so he’s actually just shouting a lot of garbled nonsense. Other park goers give them funny looks, but it works to keep Harry’s spirits up, at least for a while.

It’s not long however before Harry starts getting down again. He’s always been a worrier, and he just can’t stop his mind from running through worst-case scenarios. In the end, Harry decides to give the animal shelter another ring. They’re as short and unhelpful as ever, and Harry feels like crying when he hangs up.

“It’s hopeless, Louis. I’m never finding him.” Harry buries his face in his hands. The breakdown he’s been fighting all day is fast approaching, and he feels helpless to stop it.

Suddenly, a strong pair of arms wraps around him, and Harry feels himself being pulled into Louis, his face tucked in against Louis’ neck. “It’s okay,” Louis hushes, rubbing Harry’s back. “I’m sure he misses you too. And cats are smart; he’ll probably find his way back.”

“But what if he’s not able to? What if he’s-” Harry cuts himself off with an embarrassingly loud sob. Louis just holds him closer, making shushing sounds.

“What if I never find him? He could be gone forever.”

He barely notices Louis’ hand stilling on his back. “Uh, Harry?”

“Maybe another family’s taken him in. Like they thought he was a stray and decided to take care of him. And I could deal with that if they had, you know? If he was happy there.”

“Harry!”

“But it’s the not knowing that’s the worst part. Not knowing if he’s alive or- or dead!”

“Harry, for Christ’s sake, listen to me!  Turn around.” Louis doesn’t wait for Harry to respond, he just grabs him by the shoulders and spins him around.

“What?” says Harry, wiping at his eyes with the sleeve of Louis’ jumper.  And then he sees it, right where Louis’ pointing. A speck of orange in the distance.

Harry can’t help the excitement building in his stomach. “Sebastian?”

He immediately takes off, sticking to a slow jog. If it is Sebastian then he doesn’t want to scare him away by running at him full pelt. Louis catches up to him and pulls on his arm a little.

“Wait, Harry. Here,” he shoves the tin into Harry’s hands, “bang it and he might come over. I’ll stand back in case he doesn’t like strangers.”

Harry nods and continues on, Louis following but hanging back a little. When they get closer, Harry sees the speck is indeed a ginger cat, and Harry squeaks out, “Louis, I think it’s him!”

He taps against the can as loud as he can, and he sees the cat’s head pop up and turn to look at him. There’s a moment when the cat doesn’t move, but then it’s making its way over to him. As it comes closer, Harry can see that it is indeed Sebastian. His heart feels like it could burst.

Seb winds his way in between Harry’s legs, mewling, and Harry tosses the can aside to bend down and pick him up. “Naughty kitty,” he chastises, without even the tiniest hint of anger in his voice. “Don’t you ever run away from me again.” All he can feel is overwhelming relief and happiness.

He cuddles Sebastian in his arms, tickling him behind his ears. For his part, Sebastian nuzzles his head under Harry’s chin and purrs, seemingly just as delighted to be reunited. Harry’s so happy he’s almost completely forgotten about Louis until the other boy speaks.

“I’m glad you found him again, Harry.”

Harry spins around to find Louis looking at them both with a fond smile.

“Thank you so much for your help, Louis. I’d never have found him without you. I would’ve given up and gone home hours ago.”

Louis waves dismissively. “It’s worth it to see you looking this happy.”

Harry blushes. Sebastian is squirming in his arms, and eyeing the tin of food on the ground. “I need to get home and feed him. He’s probably starving.”

Louis rubs the back of his neck. “Oh. Yeah of course. But, um, Harry?”

“Shit, I’m sorry. I totally forgot I was wearing your jumper. Can you hold him for a second?” says Harry, passing Sebastian to Louis. He pulls off Louis’ jumper, and gives it a quick shake before giving it to Louis. “I've gotten fur all over it, I’m so sorry.”

“It’ll brush off. But I was actually going to ask if we could maybe... hang out again sometime? I just had a really great time today. I mean it was horrible that your cat was missing, of course, but I really liked meeting you, and hanging out with you, and I thought we could do it again. Under better circumstances. Like, we could go see a movie or something? Whatever you want really...”

Louis’ speaking very quickly. Some people would call it rambling. Harry has to fight to keep the smile from his lips. “Louis,” he interrupts. “Are you asking me out?”

“I um. Yeah?” Louis makes it sound like a question.

Harry’s grinning now, big and wide. “I’d really love to go out with you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

Louis smiles back, his eyes bright. He passes Seb back to Harry, then roots around in his pockets. “Here,” he says, extracting his phone. “Put your number in. I’ll text you about that date.”

After Harry’s given Louis’ phone back, and Louis’ left with the promise to text him later that evening, Harry heads home carrying a very fidgety Sebastian.

“I should be mad at you, you know,” he tells the ginger furball in his arms, “but thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: smokeofthetrain


End file.
